Dovid Efune, the British-born owner of the New York Sun, is close to reaching a deal with RedBird IMI to takeover The Telegraph for £550m ($718m), the FT reported this weekend. While sources say nothing has been finalised, they expect Efune and RedBird IMI to reach a deal next week.
Efune’s bid, backed by American bankers and investors, would end the 16-month-long saga over The Telegraph’s ownership. The popular newspaper with ties to the Conservative Party has faced massive debts and controversial takeover bids.
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The deal
If RedBird IMI, who currently controls the paper, decides to enter exclusive talks with Efune, it would take other competitors out of the running. David Montgomery’s National World, hedge fund manager Paul Marshall and the UK former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi had all expressed interest in acquiring the publication.
Efune’s £550m ($718m) bid is backed by American investment firms Oaktree and Hudson Bay Capital and hedge fund manager Michael Leffell’s family office. The Times also reported that New York banker Arye Bourkoff is an important figure behind the bid through his boutique investment bank LionTree.
Claire Enders, founder of media consultancy Enders Analysis, said Efune’s Telegraph bid had Bourkoff’s “fingerprints all over it.” Enders added that Aryeh “will have been killing himself night and day for a year to find a way of participating in this situation in a way to generate money for himself. And this guy Efune is the one with the most money. And Aryeh knows Jeff Zucker really well, who is a really significant person in all of this.”
Jeff Zucker is the former president of CNN and current CEO of Redbird IMI, a UAE-backed private equity firm.
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By GlobalDataRedBird IMI paid off The Telegraph’s and The Spectator’s £600m debt in December 2023. However, their plan to complete the acquisition of the conservative outlets was halted by a government probe into the dangers of British press coming under foreign ownership. The worries were especially high given the UAE’s track record on press freedom.
Hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall acquired The Spectator for £100m ($130m) in September.
Who is Dovid Efune?
Efune was born in Manchester but made his media career in the US. He has said he had no formal secular education after turning 11, instead completing his education at Jewish institutions where he studied the Torah and rabbinic traditions.
He ran The Algemeiner, a newspaper covering American, Jewish and Israel-related news, until 2021. He then purchased The New York Sun and has been the owner ever since.
In an editorial on the importance of American journalism earlier this year, Efune said, “There have been newspapers acquired as status symbols by billionaires and deployed as ideological playthings. Others have been designed or repurposed as government organs. The Telegraph in Britain, a fine newspaper, is now at risk of being swallowed up by the United Arab Emirates.”
Members of staff at The Telegraph have expressed worries over Efune’s editorial influence if the bid goes through. Efune’s views are staunchly pro-Israel and have come under scrutiny in recent weeks.
